Prison officers set day to strike

TERRITORY prisoners will be unable to see their lawyers unless the top brass agree to escort them as officers get set to strike.

Correctional officers have given their notice of industrial action as their enterprise bargaining heats up. In the action, officers will refuse to escort professional visitors through prisons on Mondays and Wednesdays between 9am and 5pm. This means prisoners needing to see their lawyers will be forced to wait, or ask senior management to undertake the transfers. Corrections officers will still escort health workers through the prisons.

United Voice industrial officer Di Yali said the action was not intended to be detrimental to prisoners.

“All of the actions we’re taking, none will be impacting on the health, safety or welfare of the prisoners,” she said. “And we’ve given plenty of notice so the employer would have been contacting legal services to let them know what was happen- ing and for them to make other arrangements.”

Other options for prisoners will include phone conferencing and meeting on other days.

“Or the Commissioner of Corrections himself could do the escorts,” Ms Yali said.

The “minor” industrial action was the next weapon in the correctional officers arsenal after the operational agreement staffing model negotiations stalled.

“We’ve been delaying (industrial action) in the hope that the employer would seriously negotiate with us but instead they’re treating us with contempt,” Ms Yali said.

“Ten years we’ve been waiting … the discussions we’ve been having had given the officers hope the employer was listening. … now they’re really disappointed.”

An NT Correctional Services spokeswoman said the safety and wellbeing of all involved in the prisons remained the priority. She said Corrections had a “range of contingency measures in place.”

The industrial action will begin on Wednesday.